"What God Swears By" - Hebrews 6:9-20

Got a Bible. We're going to finish up Hebrews 6 this morning.

And then right as we get to Melchizedek, we'll take two weeks break to handle Good Friday and Easter.

And so the Sunday after Easter, we get to dig into Melchizedek.

So if you have any crazy theories about him, you got two weeks to tell me about him.

And if you don't know who that is, just know we're in for a good time.

So last week we introduced this idea of perseverance of the saints.

Remember, we said that we're all going to be theologians in one way, shape, or form.

The question is not whether or not you're going to be a theologian,

but whether or not you're going to be a good one, right?

You will have a theological job in this life.

What you believe about God, what you think about God matters.

And we said that we believe here in what we call perseverance of the saints,

that the saints are going to persevere.

And how that differs a little bit from maybe what we commonly hear,

which is once saved, always saved.

Now, in a lot of ways, they're the exact same thing, but I think one difference

that matters a lot is that when I say perseverance of the saints,

I don't mean I'm saved because of something I've done.

When I say perseverance of the saints, I'm saved because of what God has done for me,

that I'm going to persevere till the end, that either when I pass away or when

Jesus comes back, that he's gonna welcome me into his kingdom,

not because of something I've done, but because he's preserved me and he has kept me in his arms.

This morning, the author is going to drive this point home and really answer

the question, how do you know that that's true?

How do you know that God's going to keep you? How do you know that God's going to preserve you?

What guarantee do you have that God's actually going to do that?

What if you mess up a whole lot? What if you really, really blow it?

And all of us in here are thinking, well, I would never do that.

I would say, be careful saying never, right?

It's interesting how many times we like to think that we would never do a certain thing.

And yet if I asked you, well, can you give me an example of somebody that you

never thought would do something that actually did something?

We have example after example, and then we'll just turn around and go,

but I would never, right? Like I would never do that.

I've told this story before. One of my favorite things on a Thursday night,

like a youth church camp or even a kids church camp is all the things that the

kids promise they'll never do.

It's my favorite thing. You know, they'll get up in the group,

15 year olds, like, you know, I'm never, ever going to cuss again.

And you're like, yeah, you will.

Like, you'll be lucky to get home, buddy. Like, you're going to sleep two hours tonight.

Somebody's going to say the wrong thing to you at Bucky's and we're just going

to see where this goes, you know, right.

I'm never going to do certain things, We're so sure of ourselves at times,

and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think that's a worthy goal.

What I am saying is if we're not careful, what saved, always saved can be.

Well, I'm saved because of a decision I made, because of something I did,

because of an aisle I walked or a prayer I prayed.

That's how I know I'm saved. When I think the Bible gives you a much better

reason to know that you will persevere till the end.

And it's not because of something you've done. It's not because of some vow

you've made or some aisle you've walked or a card that was signed for you or even your baptism.

None of those things is what God uses to say, you will make it to the end,

saint. You will make it to the end.

So last week, the author warns us. This week, the author says,

if you have it, you'll keep it. He encourages us.

And I think in a lot of ways, you would read these passages back to back and

go, well, make up your mind.

Do you want to warn me that I could fall away? Or do you want to encourage me

that I'm going to stay where I need to stay?

I think this writer is like any good pastor, and he knows his congregation.

He knows the people he's talking to well enough to know.

Some of you need to be encouraged. Some of you need to be warned.

You know, if you've ever been around or coached like little kids in Little League,

you know that some kids need you to bring them aside and pat them on the back

and say, listen, buddy, it's going to be okay.

You're going to figure this out. You're going to get it. And some kids need

you to pull them aside and say, if you don't figure this out,

right, you are going to insert whatever threat you want to insert,

right? You need to figure it out. You need to focus up.

And the truth is all of us need both of those things at different times of our

lives. There's certain times where you need to be softly encouraged.

There's certain times where you need to be swiftly and quickly encouraged to

stop doing what you're doing.

So the warning disturbs while the promise he's going to give gives assurance,

but they serve the same end, which is that the listeners might preserve in the

faith, that they might be encouraged to live lives that God has called them to give.

But again, importantly this morning, what does God's promise rest on?

What is the encouragement rest

on? So let's just get into Hebrews chapter six, starting in verse nine.

It says, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved,

we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

In other words, we feel sure that better things are in your life because salvation is yours.

Not we feel sure of better things because we know that you're going to work

really hard to earn your salvation, but we feel sure of better things because

we believe that you are truly saved.

And if you're truly saved, better things are to come than falling away from the Lord.

Verse 10, for God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that

you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do.

And we desire each of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance

of hope until the end, right? Do you want full assurance?

That's what he's talking about. So that you may not be sluggish,

but imitators of those who through faith and patience, inherit the promises. So.

What is one of the main things that belong to those who have salvation?

They love and serve the saints.

They love and serve the saints. The first century world, I'm sure,

was incredibly different than the one we live in.

If there would have been a storm like we had, was that Friday night?

In the ancient world, that would have probably been a lot harder to deal with

than all of us who were sitting in our homes that were built pretty sturdy and

we didn't have to worry about a whole lot.

If it's cold this morning, we can turn heat on. If it's hot,

we'll turn the AC on. All of us have roofs to get out from under the rain.

It's a different world, but the truth is one thing that's always the same,

whether you go back 2,000 years or 4,000 years or 6,000 years,

is that most people's main concern is themselves,

is their own lives, their own situation.

Because of that, most people look at the world around them and try to figure

out what can I use? How can I use the people around me to get what I want?

How can the people around me serve my means? How can they serve me to get what I want out of this?

How can I give away the least amount that I can give away and get back from

people the most that they can give me?

That is how most people think. And the Christian call to serve one another is

still the greatest indicator of our love for God.

And the Hebrew writer knows that.

He says that God's just and he's not gonna overlook your work and the love that

you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

This sounds a lot like what Jesus commands in John 15, 12, as he sits around

with his disciples at the Last Supper. He's already washed their feet.

Judas has already left to, as Jesus says, do what he's destined to do.

So he sits with these disciples who are faithful to him, who love him,

but who have no clue what's about to actually take place.

And he gives them a commandment. Again, John 15, 12, this is my commandment,

that you love one another as I have loved you.

Again, really important here that we don't read that and go,

well, Jesus asked me to love each other.

Jesus asked us to love each other as we feel like we should love each other.

Because that's very different than loving one another as Jesus has loved us.

Think about some of the ways that Jesus loves his disciples.

Because our temptation is to love and serve people the way we want to love them.

I want to love people the way that I want to love people. So when people want

me to love them a different way, my first response is, well, I don't want to do that.

I was willing to love you on my own terms, which is, I really don't want to love you that much.

I really just want you to accept the treatment that I want to give you and perceive

it as love and go on about your life.

But that's not what this says. Again, we're not supposed to come up with our

own plan for loving people.

We're supposed to look at the life of Christ and say, how does Christ love his disciples?

Well, number one, he takes on the form of a servant.

We covered that in Corinthians at length, that he has a real subtraction by

addition moment when he takes on flesh in the form of a servant.

He's incredibly patient, right? When people don't get it, his disciples,

even as he sits around the table with them at the Last Supper don't get it.

Peter's still chopping off people's ears. The disciples don't even stay awake

to pray. They can't even do it.

They do not understand what's going on.

I would say he's incredibly honest with them. Now, just because they don't understand

what he's saying all the time doesn't mean he's not being truthful,

but he's incredibly truthful about them and their condition.

He doesn't shy away from hard conversations. He doesn't say,

my life would be so much easier if I just didn't call that sin out,

if I just didn't press into their lives, if I didn't really get into what's going on.

And I'll give you a secret. Your life would be so much easier if you don't love people.

So much easier. It's so much simpler.

You have so much more free time, right? You'll probably have more money and more stuff.

Your life would be easier if you don't love people, which is why the world does

such a poor job of it, right? If they meet people that need time instead of

money, they're like, well, here, let me give you some money instead of my time.

They meet people that need money and say, hey, just let me give you some of

my time. We love people the way we want.

Maybe most importantly, the way Jesus loves his disciples is their sins and

shortcomings do not deter him.

Where they struggle and where they fail does not deter Jesus from loving them and serving them.

He literally calls Peter Satan to his face And he's being honest.

Peter's acting like the devil in that moment.

But that doesn't deter him from loving and serving Peter.

He doesn't cover up their sins, but he loves them despite their sins.

I love how Paul puts this in 1 Corinthians 12, 25 through 26.

He says, let there be no division in the body, that's the church,

but that the members may have the same care for one another.

In other words, no member gets special treatment because of who they are or what they've done.

No member gets special treatment because they've been there the longest or because

they've given the most money or because they've served the most or done the

most or they know the most Greek or Hebrew or they're the biggest in the community.

No one gets special treatment. Everybody gets loved the exact same way.

But verse 26, if one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

If someone in the church is suffering, we should all be suffering alongside them.

Our suffering is their suffering. If somebody is honored, we all rejoice with

them, just like a good family would.

If you suffer, I suffer. If you win, I win.

And I would just challenge you, get to know people, get to love on them a little

bit, get to figure out who they are and what they've been through and what kind

of life they've had so you can know how to love them well.

I think it's one of the hardest things to do in churches is to really get to know someone.

Because again, it's just so easy to come on Sundays and kind of get to know

people on a surface level and, hey, how's it going?

Oh, that's pretty good. Oh, that's good. Oh, yeah, that's great.

And then just kind of go about your way for six days.

I would say this, it takes a long time to get to know somebody 30 minutes a week on Sundays.

A long time. Now, we've got to prioritize that as a church, getting to know

one another and loving one another well, so that number one,

we know when someone's suffering, so we can suffer with them.

And we know when someone wins, so we can win with them.

And Paul wants them to know, number one, he hopes for better things.

And part of that hope is rooted in the fact that this church loves each other.

They care for each other.

A church should have a lot of reason for hope if they love each other well.

So number two, what's the reason for this hope?

He says, the author says that he hopes for better things. He believes the better things are coming.

What's the reason for it? Verse 13, for when God made a promise to Abraham,

since we had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying,

surely I will bless you and multiply you.

Do you want to go ahead and turn there? Genesis 22 is the story he's referencing.

If you want to get ahead of the game, if you want to win the Bible drill this

morning, just raise your hand when you get it.

But it's interesting that when he talks about the hopefulness he has for this

church, the first thing that he does is, man, you guys love each other so well.

But the second thing he does is not say, and I'm just sure that you're going

to keep loving each other so well.

You know, I'm just sure that you're going to just continue to love each other

the perfect way. And then everything's going to go great. You'll never have

any church fights. You'll never have any issues.

You'll never have some things that are hard to deal with. No,

He says, for, in other words, or because when God made a promise to Abraham,

since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying,

surely I will bless you and multiply you.

Unless Abraham having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves. And in all their disputes,

an oath is final for confirmation.

So again, what is this hope? What's the reason for his hope?

Is it because of their own works? Is it because of what they've accomplished?

Does something that every Hebrew, every Hebrew person would know.

He takes them to the story of Abraham in Genesis 22.

This is right after Abraham was sent up to the mountain to sacrifice Isaac.

And right as he's getting ready to sacrifice his son, God provides a sacrifice in his place.

So this is kind of one of the climaxes in Abraham's life.

And God says this in Genesis 22, 17 through 18, I will surely bless you and

I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand

that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because

you have obeyed my voice.

And that's good news. God's going to bless him. God's going to bless all the

nations of the earth through Abraham.

It's an incredible promise, but God does something unique in this passage.

He doesn't just make a promise, he makes an oath.

If you jump up one verse to verse 16, he says, and by myself I have sworn,

declares the Lord, and by myself I have sworn.

He swears upon himself.

Just like if you go to court, somebody's going to put their hand on the Bible

and they're going to swear on it, whether that means anything to them or not.

Doesn't matter. It symbolizes that what I'm about to say, I'm promising is true.

And I'm going to put my hand on this Bible to prove that what I'm going to say is true.

Just like you might say, I swear on something. I don't know,

swear on your life. I swear on my mom. I don't know. I hear kids say that a

lot. I don't know if that's still a thing.

We make oaths on things that are greater than us. We want to drive home our point.

We say, I'm going to swear on something that's greater than everything else

that I'm telling the truth.

And God has nothing greater to swear on than himself.

He is eternal, perfect, holy, sovereign over all things.

As if to say, I'm going to swear on something that is eternal,

perfect, holy, and sovereign over all things.

The only thing he can swear on is himself.

So why do you care about this? Why do you care about Abraham?

Why do you care about what he's doing? Why do you care about what he's about?

That's God. Why do you care about what's happening?

Because we aren't Hebrews, right? We aren't led by Abraham. We don't know who

he is. We don't know what he's like. We didn't walk with him. We didn't talk with him.

Because the promise includes, and the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

How are you blessed, right? Why is the writer of Hebrews including this?

Why is it for you and me? Why does that matter?

Paul lays this out in Galatians 3, 7 through 9 better than I can say it. So let me just read this.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles,

that's you and me, by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying,

in you shall all the nations be blessed. Quoting the same verse.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

So again, why does the author have so much hope? because those who have faith

in the God of Abraham have the promise that the God of Abraham made to him.

Do you know that you're going to persevere? How do you know that?

I think it's been rightly said that if we could lose our salvation, we would lose it.

Now, we don't like to think of ourselves that way. We like to think that I can

hold fast, that I can do it, that I can make it.

But the Bible makes it pretty clear that we wouldn't. That if we were able to leave, we would.

That we would be like some of the people we talked about last week,

like Paul's best friend, Demas, who plants churches with him and walks with

him and sees incredible things.

But in the end, the world draws him away or even like Judas, but God redeems us.

He preserves us. And how do we know he will do that? Because he has swore by himself to bless you.

You will preserve not because you made a promise to God, but because God made a promise to you.

Let's say that one more time. listen, you are going to make it,

not because of some promise you made to God or some oath you made to God or something like that.

You are going to make it because God made a promise to you that he will bless you and keep you.

And he has swore by himself that he will do it.

Our prayer is that we would find rest in that today, that we would know that

God is not waiting on you to reach some next level of spirituality.

He's not waiting on you to figure everything out. He's not waiting on your life

to be something that it may never be.

He's not waiting on you to get to some Billy Graham level of Christianity if that's your goal.

Pick your favorite theologian. Pick your favorite book that you like to read.

Pick your favorite worship band. Pick whatever it is for you.

I don't know what that is. Everybody has different people they like,

but he's not waiting on you to get to that level to bless you.

He has already blessed you in Christ.

Sounds bad, but your life may do nothing but get worse from this moment on.

Every single one of us is capable of having a day tomorrow that would make the

rest of our life worse. It's possible.

And yet, even if that were true, you would have been blessed because God has

promised to bless you and keep you.

There's Christians all over the world that read this verse in a completely different

way because their lives are not easy and the world does not look appealing.

And as they gather for church on Sunday, they aren't looking forward to anything

about what Monday might bring.

And they find rest and solace in the fact that God has redeemed them.

But again, for us this morning, he's not surprised by your sins and shortcoming.

He's not shocked by whatever struggle you're going through. And he's not blindsided

by your lack of faith or obedience at times.

He knew all of that when he granted you eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart

that believes in him. And he has promised to keep you.

It's interesting at the end of this, he mentions patience.

That's patience is a key to this. Again, at this point in Abraham's life,

he gets this promise made to him in Genesis 12 and we're in Genesis 22 and years

and years and years have gone by.

He's even taken it into his own hand to try and sleep with one of his concubines

so that he can help God out with his promises.

Again, maybe you're guilty of that at times.

You know, God, I just want to be happy. Don't you want me to be happy?

Don't you want me to feel a certain way? I'm just going to go do this myself.

The story in Genesis concentrates on how many years have passed before Abraham

and Sarah even had one child.

And the birth of Isaac is the promise he has in mind here.

But again, what strikes the Hebrew writer here is Abraham's patience.

Be patient. God will preserve you. It's closed 19 and 20.

He says, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,

a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone

as the forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Now it's interesting. He brings up Melchizedek earlier in I think chapter five,

and it's like chapter six is this break that he takes.

He introduces Melchizedek and then he goes, you're not really ready for this.

You're being really lazy, right? You can't really understand what I'm about to say.

But I have hope that you're going to get it. I'm hopeful because God has promised

it. And then when we get to chapter seven, he's gonna go like,

okay, back to Melchizedek.

You've heard of people going on like, like that's a rabbit trail.

Chapter six feels like a preacher going on a rabbit trail.

We've got Melchizedek, a little bit of a rabbit trail here to encourage and

warn and remind them of the promise.

Then chapter seven, he goes now back into Melchizedek.

So again, after Easter, we're gonna get into that.

Gives us two things here in 19 and 20. Number one, you have an anchor in heaven.

You have an anchor in heaven. We think of anchors as things that go down deep

to hold us from flailing around in the wind on a boat.

Maybe your motor's gone out, you've spun a prop, whatever it is.

You throw the anchor down so that you just don't drift aimlessly to wherever

the water wants to take you.

As Christian, our anchor goes up, not down. We have an anchor in heaven is what he says, right?

That Christ Jesus sits in heaven at the right hand of God and the person of

Jesus Christ says he's behind the curtain.

Just as the high priest in the Old Testament would go behind the curtain into

the Holy of Holies to make provision for the sins of God's people.

So Jesus has gone behind the curtain. He sits at the right hand of God. And what does he do?

What does he do at the right hand of God for you and me? Romans 8.34 says, who is to condemn you?

Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised,

who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

That's what Christ is doing. He's sitting at the right hand of the Father,

interceding for you and me.

Once again, driving home this point, do you think you're going to make it on

your own? If you think that, you're lying to yourself.

God has made a promise. Jesus has sealed it. And now he sits at the right hand

of the Father interceding for you, praying for you.

As you struggle and as things don't go the way you want them to go,

as you lack faith and as you lack obedience, Christ sits at the right hand of

the Father and he does not condemn you.

He has died for you and he intercedes for you.

Verse 17 actually kind of gives us our action point. We'll close here.

He says, so when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise,

the unchangeable character of his purpose,

he guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it

is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong

encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We who have fled for refuge. Again, where's the hope?

Where's the hope? Is it we who have got it all figured out and we who are going

to make everything right, we who have made the right decision?

No, the hope is that if you fled to God for refuge, you will be saved. You will make it.

And the danger we have as Christians, and especially Christians in East Texas,

is that fleeing to God for refuge is not what we hear most of the time.

What we hear most of the time is, what are you doing?

What are you doing? Are you giving enough? Are you going enough?

Are you serving enough? Are you working hard enough?

Do you have the right bumper stickers on the back of your car?

Have you given to the KV&E pledge drive enough this month?

Are you saying enough of the right things? Have you posted enough Facebook things?

Are you doing all the things that God has asked you to do. And we look at those

as the most spiritually mature people are the ones who are doing the most things.

And Hebrews says, no, the ones who trust in Christ, the ones who flee to him,

the one who find their refuge in him, that is where maturity lies.

Because fleeing to Christ does not mean to be lazy and take our collective breaths

and throw up our hands and say, oh, I'm so glad that Jesus saved me.

I'm just gonna sit here and do nothing.

Fleeing to Christ does not make you a coward. Fleeing to Christ does not make you lazy.

Fleeing to Christ is not like a child hiding behind their dad so that their

bullies don't get them because God isn't that kind of dad.

Fleeing to Christ is like knowing

that regardless of what the world throws at you, God will be there.

God will strengthen you, right? Think of David in the wilderness being chased

by Saul or David and Galilee, however you want to do that. It's not that David's

the hero, it's that he finds refuge in God, but he doesn't sit around and do

nothing. Neither should we.

We take our refuge in Christ, not as a coward hides behind a king,

but as a warrior, trust his king.

As a soldier, trust his general. That when his general says,

do this, go that place, do this thing, act this way, live this way, stand for this truth,

we as people in God's army say, I don't know how that's going to work.

I don't know how that's going to go. Man, that's going to cost me a lot if I

do that, if I say that, if I act that way, if I pick my friends this way,

if I commit my life this way, if I spend my money this way, God,

that's going to cost me a lot, but I have taken refuge in you.

I trust you. I trust that your plan is better, and I'll do what you've asked me to do.

And when life seems to win and nothing goes right, and I'm trying to do all

the things you've asked me to do, I will remind myself that I have you as a refuge.

I have you as a stronghold, a place to be encouraged and strengthened and reminded

of the love that I've received and the home that I've been promised and the

blessings that you swore to give me in Christ.

And then we're gonna go back into the world and do our best to obey the Father that we love.

Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this morning. Thank you for your word.

Thank you as we get ready to celebrate Easter.

God, as we just get ready to be reminded, hopefully not once a year, but to be reminded,

of what you've accomplished for us, that we would be people whose hope rests

not in ourselves, in our own works, in what we've accomplished.

That our hope would rest in what you've promised, that you've promised to keep us.

You've promised to preserve us, no matter how crazy and hectic our lives get,

no matter what sins we commit or what sins are committed against us.

God, that we would take our refuge in you, that we would love each other well,

that we would love the saints around us well, that it would cost us something.

God, when we get tired of doing that, we'd be reminded of the way that you've

loved us, the way that Christ loved his disciples, that he gave himself up for

them, that he served them, he washed their feet, he was patient and honest with them.

God, that we again would be reminded that we will preserve not because of a

promise we've made you, because of a promise you've made to us,

that you swore by yourself, your eternal, perfect, and sovereign self,

that you would bless those who have faith in you.

God, we be reminded that our anchor, our spiritual anchor is in heaven,

that Christ is interceding for us even now.

As we go out into the world, that we would be confident, that we wouldn't be

cowardly, that we wouldn't be scared to speak the truth, that we wouldn't be

scared to live our lives in a way that honors you, knowing that you've already promised to bless us,

that you're worthy of obedience and honor and glory. In the name I pray, amen.